Hm...well yeah...still...? Actually I can't imagine that it's not possible to combine the two diets yourself in a way that's appropriate.

SWAMI seems a bit strange to me...from what I've read it becomes too subjective for my taste...it seems to consist of self-report questions and it seems to includes the basic MBTI which is by no means an objective tool...I know what I'm talking about...I have been a regular on a personality typing forum for two years...

1) Follow BTD (blood type diet) and ignore the food lists in GTD (genotype diet.)2) Follow GTD and ignore the food lists in BTD.3) Invest in a SWAMI and follow the personalized plan that meshes BTD with GTD and your individual health history. You then ignore the food lists in all the books, although the books remain wonderful for deeper understanding of the ideas behind the diets.

There's also a 4th option, which I don't recommend: try to combine BTD and GTD on your own. You're likely to drive yourself crazy with this approach, and you're also likely to put foods you like on the "beneficial" list, even if they're not actually what your body needs.

SWAMI isn't any more subjective than GTD. It asks for blood type, personal and family health history, and all the measurements used in GTD to determine genotype. It often comes up with a different "genotype label" than you get from the back of the book- that's not important. Each individual food is evaluated against about a hundred factors to determine whether it's a "diamond" "beneficial" "neutral" "black dot" or "avoid" for you personally.

There are places for additional data, such as MTBI personality data or specialized blood tests. None of these things are required for SWAMI,but you can add in extra data if you have it. If you distrust the results of the personality testing, leave it out or re-run it with a few different inputs to see if it affects your results.

On SWAMI: Your Myers-Briggs Personality Type is an optional field. Some people choose to include and other choose to omit it.

When people choose to include to include it typically shifts the results be a few percentage points.

I choose to provide SWAMI as much information as possible so that it can use the information to customize my diet plan. But there is no need to supply personality data if you do not want to. It works fine without it.

On combining GenoType and Blood type diet. Like others I advice against it.

I recommend taking the quiz and following whatever system it recommends rather than trying to guess the rating on each individual food item.

Welcome and I had the same questions once I got into the differences between the two diets. I got to the point where I SWAMI'ed because I was a Nonnie (non secretor) with lingering issues to figure out. If you are a Nonnie it is better to SWAMI earlier than later, since there are certain suceptibilities to diseases or disorders of the body more frequently. If you are not then your blood type secretions should see you through the beginning stages of getting rid of avoids and on your way to beneficials smoothly. I am very grateful that the SWAMI enabled me to screen things out more thoroughly that would have taken me a full year of trial/error to keep/get rid of as far as eating. And it is very personalized and can be configurated around present illnesses, if any, to a certain extent.

Mortal life is a stay in a vast hospital ward. (Eastern Orthodoxy +)

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential. (Churchill)

1) Follow BTD (blood type diet) and ignore the food lists in GTD (genotype diet.)2) Follow GTD and ignore the food lists in BTD.3) Invest in a SWAMI and follow the personalized plan that meshes BTD with GTD and your individual health history. You then ignore the food lists in all the books, although the books remain wonderful for deeper understanding of the ideas behind the diets.

There's also a 4th option, which I don't recommend: try to combine BTD and GTD on your own. You're likely to drive yourself crazy with this approach, and you're also likely to put foods you like on the "beneficial" list, even if they're not actually what your body needs.

And there's a 5th option that many on this Forum espouse and tell us about, day in and day out:Know your own responses/reactions to various foods and practices, and definitely take these into account, no matter what SWAMI or any book says.

D'Adamo proponent since 1997dadamo Blogger and Forum participant since 2005Cyber-Newbie, as of 2004

I am so glad you raised this question as I feel the same way. I have been following typea for 2 months with no issues and feeling great. Got so enthusiastic I decided to follow the genodiet for warrior (which I think I am from the testing but maybe my fingerprints are a bit sus). Anyway find the warrior difficult as it is more restricting and limits some of the things I like. Tried to do the combination of both - only having what both suggested and avoiding all the avoids on both - did drive me insane and my skin isnt looking as good as it was after the first 2 weeks on typea diet.

My thought is now to do strict typea for a month and see how I feel and how the skin looks. I know the swami and secretor status would probably help but also $ is a consideration with doing that.

Now that I am pretty sure that I'm a "nonnie" ( ), I'm seriously considering getting a SWAMI as soon as possible. Following the Explorer diet (though not 100%) I sometimes think I might not be getting enough animal proteins and other stuff in relation to carbs. And that's ever though I'm blood type A... From what I've read non-secretors are allowed more meat etc.?

I'm not going to buy the secretor test though...it's 89€ in Germany... wich is a lot more than 69$ which is less than 69€.... probably because of the shipping costs they already added...

...but I'm also wondering how I could best get hold of a SWAMI here in Germany...and isn't it essentially only a code I have to type in online since it's web-based.....?

...and since I'm not earning my own money and it's past Christmas, I still have to convince my husband that it's necessary...

I'm seriously considering getting a SWAMI as soon as possible. Following the Explorer diet (though not 100%) I sometimes think I might not be getting enough animal proteins and other stuff in relation to carbs. And that's ever though I'm blood type A... From what I've read non-secretors are allowed more meat etc.?

I'm not going to buy the secretor test though...it's 89€ in Germany... wich is a lot more than 69$ which is less than 69€.... probably because of the shipping costs they already added...

...but I'm also wondering how I could best get hold of a SWAMI here in Germany...and isn't it essentially only a code I have to type in online since it's web-based.....?

Explorer is the most error prone diet in the GTD, since all 4 blood types can be Explorer.

I agree that SWAMI is more valuable than the Secretor test, as you can run SWAMI both ways to see the differences and delete avoids from both from your diet... Depending on how large the difference is would tell me how important the Secretor test would be.

The least expensive method for you to get SWAMI would be to have a family member, friend, etc. in the U.S. purchase SWAMI and send you the codes via e-mail or fax. Of course, this means that you need to be able to trust them with your money.

An alternative is to wait until the new release which is supposed to be able to send the codes electronically - although there is no firm date for the release.

Another option, at least until you can order SWAMI, is to follow the type A food list but vary the portions recommended in the book. Eat more meat and fewer grains if that's what it feels like your body needs. You can even do the same thing with the Explorer food lists if you feel that the Explorer diet works better for you than the A diet. The suggested portion sizes and frequencies are a good starting point, but you need to make some adjustments. Be sure to eat all the veggies called for, but vary the portions of meats, grains, and beans as needed.

I'm not going to buy the secretor test though...it's 89€ in Germany... wich is a lot more than 69$ which is less than 69€.... probably because of the shipping costs they already added...

Hallo! As far as I know you can ask your Hausarzt (GP) to run a bloodtest for you which should be covered by your healthinsurance. It might be worth to ask him if he could include the secretor test when he does it- just a thought

I've already had my basic blood type determined when I was pregnant (A-). Not sure if I could have another one. Maybe I can have my A1/A2 type determined when I say I want to donate blood. But from what I've heard and (not) found, there aren't any labs in Germany that do such tests.

Ruthie, I bought the BTD app and am trying the a nonnie diet for now...more or less. It seems to be quite in line with the explorer one...only a bit less restrictive for me. But there's no way I'll try drinking coffee a second time just because the list says it's good for As.